Aaj Tak had a special interview with Mallya at the launch. Pretty interesting to hear what he said. He says it will be closer to JetBlue than to Southwest or Ryanair. It will be the first to offer full fledged IFE and liquor (not too difficult for Him!).

He also made it amply clear that it will be more expensive than the apex fares of the major carriers, as well as the fares of other LCC's but cheaper than their full fares. He talked of offering the "best value proposition".

As for the livery, quite Jhataang and more appropriate for a touristy airline. But if it flies then i guess it should be ok?

I wonder if Air Blue http://www.airblue.com in Pakistan jolted him into starting this enterprise, I mean how come he didnt think of this before to compete with Jet and Sahara, he always had the means and the potential existed in the Indian market, perhaps he got inspired that if a country like Pakistan can have an airline like that, than so can India.

Boeing 787 hi, surpsrisingly PIA is still preffered over the privates, as most of them failed to really provide a good product to customers, righ now Aero Asia(E4) are flying old 732's and DC9's while Shaheen(NL) have the Tu154 and Yak42, neither are very concious of their corporate identity, so they dont have livery's, just lease aircraft and paste their logo and titles on them regardless of what colour the aircraft may be sporting from the previous operater, inflight service seems to be lacking as well, they only thing thats attractive about them is the cheaper fare and in this case too its only Aero Asia that has the lowest fares, making them the most succesful carriers of the lot, they havent shut down for one day since launching service in late 1992 (NL have wrapped up twice) and are popular with budget travellers and labour market in the middle east as they and Shaheen fly to the Gulf region competeing with PIA as well, another advantage they have on the home front is that they only fly on profitable routes like Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Karachi, as well as some others, while PIA who have to maintain a loss making domestic network, the privates dont even fly to Quetta which is a provincial capital.

Shaheen have been bought of by a Canadian company operated by Pakistani's, yet to see how they will revamp the carrier.

ED (Air Blue) are new to the scene, and a breath of fresh air, they offer IFE on their A320's, plus "gourmet" meals, a smart corporate identity but they are nearly as expensive as PIA, havent heard much about them from anyone, they offered a 50% discount on flights for the firsdt month of oeprations, and fares were lower than the Train, the airline is already facing some problems with their plans as the Pak CAA raised taxes, parking fee, handling charges by 50% etc on all domestic operations, they claim that the fees remains the cheapest in the region even blew that charged by India, airline sare planning to raise the issue with the President.

Another private called Air Pearl is said to be in the making but no update on them, just that they had taken an ex-United 732 in full basic UA livery, it was in Karachi till January.

Bhoja Air, a third rate enterprise who had wrapped up operations in early 2000 are also trying to make a come back.

mean how come he didnt think of this before to compete with Jet and Sahara, he always had the means and the potential existed in the Indian market

FYI, UBAir - promoted by Vijay Mallya was one of the first private airline to take off in India when the skies were thrown open in late 80s. (along with Eastwest Airlines etc). I think they flew Dornier and I have flown Bangalore - Mangalore with them couple of times. It was a small scale operation.

"perhaps he got inspired that if a country like Pakistan can have an airline like that, than so can India".

I know someone who's done lot of business with Mallya, and he is a bit of a flamboyant character who's into race horses and stuff in addition to beer. Sure as hell he was contemplating going into airlines. As gamps pointed out, he was one of the first people to start an airline when the liberalization first took place. I don't think he was inspired in any way by Pakistan's Air Blue.

Never argue with idiots. They will bring you down to their level, and beat you with experience.

Guess what - Parvez Damania's BAAAACCKKKKK ! He will be new CEO of Kingfisher Air - Lord only knows what will happen now!! Parvez - although a man of ideas, hasn't really proven himself as an airline professional. Jet and Sahara have much better management.

Who's the girl on the extreme left? She looks nice
Hope she will be the FA when I fly on Kingfisher Air..hehehe

Anyway, it will be good to get another LCC in India, but IMO they should have bought some 737s also.
BTW, including Kingfisher Air, how many airlines operate in India? I remember the last time I visited India, there were so many of them (like Modiluft, East West etc), but most of them went under, so how many airlines are there now?